Solving the Childcare Crisis

Written By: Marlene Osteen | Issue: October - 2022

One truth made clear by the pandemic is that without a system of broad affordable daycare, modern society devolves into impossibility. Not only is it linked to better development in children, but it relates to businesses’ ability to recruit and retain talent – it’s a social responsibility that requires robust community backing. Since 2005, Highlands Community Child Development Center has been at the forefront of resolving the childcare crisis locally, supporting the needs of area working families. It’s the only year-round, state-licensed, five day per week, 10 hours per day childcare program in the Highlands Township, which accepts infants, providing care for children eight weeks to five years of age. As Ann Flynn, Vice President of HCCDC recently told me, “The role of HCCDC in allowing parents to provide for their families while their children are cared for and nurtured is crucial to the prosperity of the community. These are the children whose parents staff the restaurants, grocery stores and other establishments, supplying the services on which our community relies, ensuring the quality of life for which Highlands is so well known.” Making that vision a reality is the continuing commitment of the staff and community-based board of directors of HCCDC. Together they are “dedicated to fulfilling their long-standing heritage of providing full-time quality childcare, early childhood education and childhood development to the families who live and work in the greater Highlands community.” But the simple truth is that it’s extremely difficult to operate a self-supporting high-quality facility without charging rates so high that most families cannot possibly afford them. In order to provide tuition money to parents who are unable to afford it, HCCDC relies on grants and contributions. To ensure HCCDC’s ongoing prosperity, local businesses have come together to launch the first annual FundDay on October 21. In doing so, they’ve pledged contributions to assist in subsidizing HCCDC’s vital services- including facility expansion, facility maintenance and classroom and playground needs. The Board of Directors of HCCDC is encouraging people to shop in these venues on October 21 as a way of thanking them for their participation: Lupoli Construction, Kitchen Carry Away and Catering, Reeves Hardware, Highlands Pharmacy and Highlands Lawn and Garden, Wits End, Vivace, McCulley’s, Martha Anne’s on the Hill, CK Swan, Dry Sink, Rosenthal’s, Highland Hiker, AnnaWear, Old Edwards, Oak Leaf, Bryson’s Grading, Subway, Wild Thyme, Ugly Dog, First Bank, and Dr. Sue Aery Chiropractic. by Marlene Osteen